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Security cooperation with US still crucial for Germany

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Germany's newly formed commission investigating the U.S. secret surveillance revelations have been warned by the German Interior Minister to tread carefully

BERLIN – Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has underlined the continued importance of security cooperation with the U.S. despite the National Security Agency (NSA) spying scandal that has caused uproar in Germany.

“The cooperation between the German and U.S. security agencies has crucial importance for the security of Germany,” Maiziere told German daily Rheinische Post.

Maiziere has called on the parliament’s newly formed NSA investigation committee to act in a responsible manner while investigating the allegations of the NSA’s secret surveillance in Germany.

“If the committee's work ruined this cooperation, then we would get little additional insight, but an immense blow not only to the security in our country, but also for the security of our soldiers, police and embassies abroad,” he added.

Germany’s ruling and opposition parties agreed to establish a committee of inquiry to examine the U.S. National Security Agency’s phone and internet surveillance of senior German leaders and citizens since 2002.

U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden’s 2013 revelations included the news that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was also targeted by the covert U.S. surveillance.